HYDERABAD, Sept 14: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Sunday rejected amendments to the Sindh Tenancy Act unless the opinion of representatives of labourers and Haris were included in it.

It also called for strict implementation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992, and the recovery of family of liberated Hari, Manu Bheel.

These resolutions were adopted at a seminar on “Compulsory labour and the needs of the modern world”, which was organized at the Shah Latif Municipal Library Hall, Tando Adam.

The seminar was organized to mark the fifth death anniversary of the first coordinator of the HRCP’s Special Task Force for Sindh, Shakeel Pathan.

The resolution further demanded that the projects regarding the Kalabagh Dam, greater Thal canal and Bhasha dam should not be undertaken unless consensus was evolved among the people of all four provinces.

Condemning what the HRCP termed a conspiracy against the Haris and the agriculture sector in the name of corporate farming, another resolution was passed stating that agriculture should be declared as an industry and agriculture labour should be provided health and accommodation facilities, whereas the contract system in factories should be ended imm-ediately.

Demanding recovery of bonded Haris confined to the private jails of landlords, it was pointed out that proper legislation should be made regarding Haris’ trade unions and false cases against liberated Haris should be withdrawn which were instituted on the insistence of their tormentors.

Speaking on the occasion, HRCP council member, Jam Saqi, demanded that forest land should be distributed among landless Haris and they should be given loans from the agricultural banks so that they could play their role in stabilizing the country’s economy.

STF’s Coordinator for bonded labour Chaudhry Aftab Ahmed said that by 2005, the WTO would be enforced in the country that would lead to the destruction of the country’s economy, and added that the leaders and the elite of the country did not want to see the Haris sitting with them.

He ridiculed the contention of landlords who claimed that Haris were their partners, and added that it was an irony that one partner laboured the whole day, while the other sat in air-conditioned rooms.

He suggested that the Sindh Tenancy Act should be amended after taking Haris’ representatives and elected people into confidence, failing which the HRCP would resist any amendment.

STF’s Coordinator Nasreen Shakeel Pathan called upon the landlords to give due respect to the Haris working on their lands in accordance with the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992.

She said that landlords subjected bonded Haris to excesses.

The core groups coordinator of the STF, Akhtar Baloch, said that the HRCP could not solve problems without the cooperation of people.

The president, Azad Hari Union, Master Lal Ji, and others also spoke on the occasion.